"Sister Lingqing, which fifth-grade spirit liquid are you most familiar with?" Seeing her perk up, Li Luo smiled encouragingly.
"Heavenward spirit liquid. I'm most familiar with its formula, and it's the one I've been practicing. But like I said, I've never succeeded before," Yan Lingqing said.
He nodded and called over the staff to tell them that they were going to change their refining materials. Very soon, a new batch of ingredients was streaming into the refining workshop.
Song Qiuyu had already walked out of her own refining workshop with a superior smile. "Yan Lingqing, still struggling? No way you can turn the tables," she gloated to herself. She was feeling very good about having decisively beaten Yan Lingqing.
Back at the Resonance Tempering Hall, Yan Lingqing had always been firmly in the lead. Later on, Yan Lingqing had brought Song Qiuyu into the refining group, but that teacher had continued to favor Yan Lingqing and treat Song Qiuyu coldly.
It had made her extremely resentful and jealous. She felt that her talent was comparable. The teacher's bias was unfair!
Although Yan Lingqing was kind, it was a kindness that smacked of pity. She did not want it. Yan Lingqing, you were just trying to show off how nice you were!
"Now it is my win!"
...
"Ready."
Li Luo looked over at Yan Lingqing.
The latter took a deep breath and then nodded gravely.
"Glass solution, 10 drops!"
Li Luo immediately pulled out a transparent fruit and squeezed gently until 10 drops were in a test tube. He put a pulse of resonant power in.
This one was slightly more than his experiment previously.
He handed over the test tube, and she started to purify it and condense the medicinal properties.
But this time, she could feel a strong and vital resonant power that was helping her tune things. She was taken aback by its presence.
Most crucially, it was not at all hindering her processing. It was as though someone had secretly added a powerful watersource to it.
And then a jolt of understanding flooded through her, making her turn to look at Li Luo anew.
If she still did not understand at this point, then she would truly be a numbskull.
She did not speak about it, quickly settling herself. With the help of that revitalizing resonant power, she swiftly began to purify the ingredients.
"Citric Drizzle Fruit.
"Cloud Rootgrass.
"Blossom Paste."
The names tumbled off her tongue in quick succession, and Li Luo promptly supplied the ingredient each time.
Time ticked on.
The other resonance artificers were done. There were successes and failures, but none of it mattered. Before Song Qiuyu's fifth-grade spirit liquid, they were all defeated.
Therefore, all eyes were now turned to the last refining workshop yet to finish—Suncreek Villa.
"Not giving up yet?"
Mo Ling was smiling smugly up from the Song family's viewing area. He shook his head. "Yan Lingqing, struggling like a fish on the hook. Does she think she can produce a fifth-grade spirit liquid too?"
"Impossible. She's not at the fifth-grade level yet. Even Qiuyu could not have done it if not for the secret Inkwater ingredients."
Song Shan gave a calculated smile. "The moment Qiuyu is declared Artificer Prime, we will announce the launch of the Inkwater Villa's products. It will definitely cause a huge stir, and the Suncreek Villa can basically pack up and close."
Song Shan's heartbeat quickened as he imagined the moment.
After today, the Pine Nut Villa would be the best villa in the Tianshu Province.
At the Golden Dragon Bank's spectator area, President Lu frowned. "There must be some trouble at the Suncreek Villa side. The Song family is working together with the Inkwater Villa. They delivered huge quantities of their secret formulas before. They must be aiming to crush the Suncreek Villa today."
Lu Qing'er was alarmed to hear this. The Song family must have been planning to make their move at this festival.
Their goal? To surpass the Suncreek Villa and dominate the spirit liquids and purifying lights market in the Tianshu Province.
Over at House Luolan's side, Cai Wei felt a tingle of excitement upon seeing Yan Lingqing rally herself. She knew of the grudge between the two. If she lost here, it would be a big mental blow.
Still, she was very anxious. She did not understand how Yan Lingqing could possibly turn this around.
Soon enough, another bell rang out, reminding participants that the time limit was approaching.
Song Qiuyu folded her arms across her chest, resting her head against the crystal wall at an angle. She cocked an eye towards a fully-focused Yan Lingqing, watching her struggle with pleasure.
"Yan Lingqing, how helpless! It will not save you," she hissed.
Ding!
Another bell.
Yan Lingqing put down her hands. Her face was pouring with fragrant sweat, her chin tucked in. Close to 1,000 ingredients had been prepared, and the toil on her had been incredible.
However, the preparations were all done.
It had gone much more smoothly than she had ever done before.
But the final step was to refine the watersource and then fuse all of the prepared mixtures together to form the final spirit liquid.
It was an equally important step.
Yan Lingqing took a deep breath and picked up a polymerization crystal.
Li Luo put his hand on hers.
Yan Lingqing looked at him, puzzled. If not for the gravity of the situation, she would have thought he was hitting on her.
"Sister Lingqing, let's do this together." Li Luo gave her a sunny smile that dazzled her for a moment.
Recovering, she nodded. Although she did not really understand what he was doing, she trusted him.
Both used their resonant powers together, infusing the polymerization crystal.
A pure light settled within the crystal. Next, droplets of watersource began to condense and drip down into a crystal vial.
Li Luo's face was pale. He had used up virtually all of his resonant power. Although he was much weaker than she was, the purity of the watersource that he could produce was a cut above Yan Lingqing's.
With the two working together, the result would have to be better than a watersource that Yan Lingqing produced alone.
Holding the vial up, Yan Lingqing looked at the purest watersource she had ever produced.
It was all thanks to Li Luo.
She again turned to stare at him, and he grinned at her weakly, his face pale.
"Sister Lingqing, the show's yours."
With a slight incline of her head in acknowledgement, she started to bring the ingredients together, adding test tubes to the bottle of watersource.
When they injected the watersource, the test tube solutions glowed, filled with lifeforms fusing together and creating new possibilities.
The changes would take the better part of a minute before subsiding.
Within the crystal vial, the liquid bubbled and quietened, and its color gradually faded away. At the same time, beams of light danced merrily within.
“Hua!”
The crowd was getting excited now. The resonance artificers were even more astonished. From the dancing lights, they could tell that this was more than a fourth-grade spirit liquid. It had to be a fifth-grade spirit liquid!
Yan Lingqing stared at the crystal vial, lost in thought. Finally, she stretched out a trembling hand and inserted the tempering measurement needle.
It climbed to 58!
Her eyes lit up like the sun.
The crowd roared, led by the commentator.
"Suncreek Villa! Yan Lingqing! Fifth-grade Heavenward spirit liquid, SUCCESS! Tempering strength, FIFTTTYYYY EIGHT!"
ROAR!
After a stunned silence, the crowd exploded with excitement. The Suncreek Villa had barely finished in time, but they had managed to produce a fifth-grade spirit liquid!
And it was even higher than Song Qiuyu's!
Incredible!
Amidst the cheers, the smirk on Song Qiuyu's face was frozen in time.